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When the debtor's income sources or assets are concealed or unknown, one tactic used by judgment creditors can be a group of judgment debtor examinations that have requests for the production of documents. After the judgment debtor gets personally served notice of a court-ordered debtor examination, three things may happen: 1) They might show up and comply, or at least pretend to cooperate. Nothing forces judgment debtors speak the truth at, or bring accurate paperwork to, court exams. Hiring a court reporter to document the responses of your judgment debtor may help them tell the truth, however court reporters are costly. 2) The debtor may fail to show up at all, which means the judgment creditor may later be able to pay for a bench warrant. In certain places, Sheriffs pick up judgment debtors for civil bench warrants. In most counties, the Sheriff are too busy, and buying a bench warrant is all too often wasted money for a judgment creditor. 3) Prior to the court date examination, the judgment debtor (or their lawyer) might request a stipulation for a continuance; to move the exam to some date in the future. Stipulating to a date change of an upcoming debtor examination is what this article discusses. My articles are my opinions and are not, legal advice. I am a judgment expert, and not an attorney. If you ever need legal advice or a strategy to use, please retain a lawyer. Continuances of debtor exams might get requested by either the debtor's attorney (usually by a filing of their unavailability notice) or by the debtor themselves, for some other reason. Stipulating means you agree in writing with the other side's request. Examination date stipulations update the court's record to schedule the new debtor examination date. There seems to be no case laws which says you must stipulate to a debtor attorney's notice of unavailability filing, so it's probably not required. However, it is usually a good idea to be willing to agree to stipulate with the debtor's attorney, even if you have a sneaky or fraudulent debtor. Agreeing with a stipulation to change the examination date with the judgment debtor's lawyer demonstrates to the court and the judge that you are reasonable. This should also permit that court to keep their jurisdiction over the judgment debtor examination, all subpoenaed document productions requests, and any possible judgment debtor examination lien. Sometimes, the reasons given by the judgment debtor or the debtor's attorney may seem fabricated or silly; yet most judges are very sympathetic to the schedules of lawyers, and the "needs" of judgment debtors. Because of this, it is usually a smart idea to agree with all date stipulations, while staying careful to make certain you do not give up your rights. Having the court retain jurisdiction over the judgment debtor is very important, especially if you have previously had your document production request subpoena served on them. The goal is to attempt to be sure the examination date stipulation agreement preserves the court's jurisdiction, any potential exam lien, and especially specifically identifies or references, any document requests that were previously served. It is important to keep the status of any previously served subpoenas for requested documents. When a court approved stipulation approves the date change, yet does not mention any subpoenaed documents request; your debtor might be allowed to not bring any requested documents. If the court's rights for jurisdiction to the subpoenaed documents get not preserved, debtor claims such as: "Sorry, I just saw this new order and it just said I was not told to bring anything else", "I thought it wasn't needed anymore", "I thought it was cancelled", or "Oh!, you still wanted those?"; might all be accepted by the judge. When your subpoena rights are not maintained, debtors don't have to bring in any paperwork. If you're planning to agree with a debtor examination stipulation to change the date, get your judgment debtor's lawyer do the majority of the work. You might not need to show up at court when you agree with a change of date stipulation. All that is required is a new court order that continues both the debtor exam date, and includes the identical date for the already served requests for subpoenaed documents. Discuss what court dates and times can work, and the points the stipulation agreement should have, with the judgment debtor's attorney. A quality attorney will be cooperative. Then, ask your judgment debtor's attorney to create a stipulation order that moves both the exam and subpoenaed document request to a later date. Have your judgment debtor's attorney send you the stipulation agreement to sign, for an upcoming ex-parte hearing to get their order. Or, ask the attorney to join you in the court for a cooperative motion to continue their client's examination and subpoenaed document request; at a mutually convenient time and date, on a date scheduled on a civil court's ex-parte calendar. An important goal should be for the court to retain jurisdiction for your debtor exam and your subpoenaed document requests. If that is not done, the court won't retain the jurisdiction to order your debtor to show up, provide documents, or to possibly sanction them. If the subpoenaed paperwork was already been requested and served, do not agree to meet with their debtor or the debtor's lawyer while not in the court, as any ability to compel a subpoena request is solely at a court. Anyone requesting a stipulated date continuation should be certain to familiarize themselves with the local court procedures, and the general practices of their particular judge. The way to, or whether their court will grant your continuance of a debtor examination on a mutual stipulation varies from court to court. Mark D. Shapiro of: http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - The fastest and easiest way to find the best professional to buy or recover your judgment.
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